Gonzales’ Testimony Thus Far
Before Gen. Gonzales was asked any questions, Sen. Leahy, (D-VT), set the tone in his statement by repeatedly using the phrase domestic wiretapping of American citizens. It’s obvious that that’s the justification they’ll be using for their questioning. To his credit, though, Gen. Gonzales testified, in a question asked by Sen. Kennedy, that “there’s all kinds of wild speculation out there” about what they’re doing in terms of gathering intel.
Leahy even went so far as to ask if “the president’s” inhererent authority made it legal for them “to open first class mail.” Mr. Gonzales replied that “that isn’t what we’re doing” & that it’s a narrowly focused program.
I’ll be back later with more reports. Testimony is resuming.
Back for a minute. Sen. Hatch was on fire. He made a great point when he mentioned that the FISA appeals court “even said that FISA couldn’t infringe upon the President’s inherent Constitutional authority”; He said that other court rulings, including the recent Inre: Sealed Cased and Hamdi rulings have affirmed those additional presidential powers in wartime. Sen. Hatch also said that “Senators are always talking about the Legislative being a co-equal branch of government but then not acting like the Executive is a co-equal branch.” Good point, Sen. Hatch.
Best zinger of the day thus far came from Sen. Grassley, who chided “Congress” for not making a big deal out of this while they were being briefed for 4 years but then who got a hornet in their bonnet “the minute the NY Times ran the story.” He said that if Congress was worried about the program’s legality, it shouldn’t have waited until the NY Times ran the article.
Grassley also asked Gen. Gonzales if they were investigating the leakers who gave this information to the NY Times & Gonzales said they were.
Just prior to Sen. DeWine’s time to question Gen. Gonzales, someone started shouting from the back of the hearing room. What this man said was inaudible but the first thing that Sen. DeWine said was that “Let the record show that the attorney general isn’t a fascist”, which Chairman Specter said it would be “duly noted” with a chuckle in his voice. The cameras also cut away to show someone sitting in the hearing room audience wearing a t-shirt that read “Follow the law. Arrest Bush.”
During Sen. Feinstein’s questioning, she tried tarring the President with the half-statement about “When we’re talking wiretaps, we’re talking about getting a court order.” She said that, at best, he was mistaken. Gonzales then nailed her by saying that he had the full statement and read it, showing that the statement was made with regard to the Patriot Act and that the President was specifically refering to roving wiretaps. Gen. Gonzales said that that’s the only context in which that quote should be taken. Gen. Gonzales also said that he thought it was unfair of Congress and the media to take that statement out of context like that.
My overall impression of this morning’s testimony is that Leahy did his best to characterize the NSA surveillance program as the President run amok by spying on thousands of innocent Americans. It didn’t take Gen. Gonzales long to demolish that argument. His answers have been pretty concise and based on court precedents.
My personal highlight of this morning was Sen. Hatch ran down the list of court precedents, especially the FISA appeals court ruling that said that FISA couldn’t infringe upon “the President’s inherent Constitutional authority.”
The most laughable part was Sen. Leahy repeatedly asserting that the President had broken the law by going the route he did and that they didn’t need to because there was a different way that was legal. Talk about BS.
For more updates, check for them at my blog. This is one of the times when I wish I had a laptop but I’ll do the best I can with what I’ve got.